


In the Cage

by CadenzaRose



Series: Stuck in Small Spaces [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-20
Updated: 2016-04-20
Packaged: 2018-06-03 08:29:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6603868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CadenzaRose/pseuds/CadenzaRose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Animan has just attacked! To keep Alya and Nino safe, Ladybug tossed them in an animal cage together before running off to fight the akuma. Which is awkward for Alya, because Nino has just confessed his love for her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In the Cage

**Author's Note:**

> What I imagine to have taken place in the cage during "Animan" while Ladybug and Chat Noir were fighting the akuma. Dedicated to thelastpilot, because reading her work inspired me to dig this up and finish it! :)

“Hey!”

“Ugh!”

Alya and Nino landed with twin thumps in the bottom of a very metal, very animal-scented cage.

“You’ll be safe in here!” Ladybug said, before slamming the door and rushing off to address the herd of animals currently enjoying their new-found freedom.

“Hey, wait!” Alya called, but it was too late. Ladybug was gone. She slumped to the ground, excitement at being literally an arm’s length away from Ladybug somewhat tempered by the fact that she was now trapped in a cage away from all of the action with a boy who had just recently confessed his love for her. Admittedly, she wasn’t supposed to have heard that part, but that didn’t make things any easier.

“So… what’s up?” Nino said carefully, shooting finger guns at her.

Alya hit her forehead with the palm of her hand. This was so far from ideal, she didn’t even know where to begin.

They sat in awkward silence for a few minutes. Nino looked like he wanted to say something, but Alya was determined not to speak. Please don’t talk, please don’t talk, she begged silently. You’re like a brother to me and I don’t want anything to change just please don’t talk.

He missed the memo.

“So,” he said, eyes facing the bars of their cage. “What are you doing at the zoo today?”

Crap. She forgot that she wasn’t supposed to be here.

“Oh, well, you know,” she began, searching for an acceptable excuse. “I was just dropping off Marinette, and then I thought, it’d be pretty dumb to come to the zoo and not look at any of the animals, right? So I decide to stick around. For a bit.”

Nino made a noncommittal sound in his throat. Alya wasn’t sure he was convinced, but she didn’t dare look around to see.

The silence settled down around them. Alya fidgeted uncomfortably. Was he going to confess to her, or if he was just going to sit there and let the awkwardness stretch?

He didn’t speak.

Alya decided she was done with awkward.

Abandoning her resolution to stay silent for the afternoon, she took a deep breath and turned to face Nino.

“Listen, Nino,” she said. “I really hate to tell you this, but I sort of overheard you talking with Marinette earlier.”

“What?” he said, sounding scandalized.

Alya held up her hands defensively. “I know, I know, I’m really sorry. But I want you to know that I only think of you as a friend. A brother, really. I mean, I’m flattered, but…”

Alya looked up to see Nino rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Oh. That’s what… oh,” Nino said. “Yeah, I can see how you might think that. That I like you.”

Alya raised an eyebrow. Since when did the words “I’m in love with a girl” plus “it’s your friend Alya” not indicate that he liked her?

“Well, you see, I was trying to tell Marinette… I was trying to tell Marinette that I liked her,” he said, blushing furiously. “But I couldn’t do it. So I choked and said your name instead.”

“What?” it was Alya’s turn to be shocked.

“Please don’t be offended!” Nino said hurriedly. “You’re a great friend, I just don’t see you that way, and I mean, neither do you, so-”

Alya was shaking her head. “No, forget about that,” she said. “What was this about Marinette? You like her?”

Nino nodded sheepishly. “She’s really cute and sweet and loyal, but also strong, you know? I just… I don’t know. It thought it’d be fun to go on a date with her. Adrien helped me set it up…”

“Adrien?” Alya said, face a picture of shocked disbelief. When Nino nodded, Alya raised a hand to her face and began massaging her forehead with her fingertips. “Just how dense is that boy?”

“Sorry?”

Alya looked up at him, half pitying, half sympathetic. “I’m sorry. I don’t quite know how to tell you this… I don’t really know if it’s my place either.”

“Does it have to do with Marinette?”

Alya nodded.

Nino set his face in a determined expression. “Then shoot. I can take it.”

“Well, you see…” How was she supposed to phrase this without betraying Marinette’s worst-kept secret? “Marinette likes A-” She stopped herself. That would be too much. “…another boy. In our class,” she finished lamely.

Nino’s shoulders sank, but only slightly. His eyes dropped to the floor of the cage. “Yeah, I kinda figured that,” he said. “I mean, after hanging out with her for a bit. She’s adorable and everything, but she was so happy when she thought I liked you that I knew she couldn’t like me.”

Alya smiled at the poor boy. He was taking this well, bless him. Everyone seemed to fall for her best friend at some point or another, but with Marinette’s heart as set as it was, they all had to give up eventually. Some just did so more gracefully than others.

“So, who is it?” Nino’s voice cut through the slight silence that had hung in the air between them.

“What?”

“Who’s this dude that Marinette likes?”

“What, so you can go beat him up?”

Nino looked horrified. “What? Me? Beat someone up? Never. I know when to back down. I’m just curious, that’s all.”

“Well, I’ll never tell. Girl code.”

“I bet its Adrien.”

Alya stiffened momentarily, but recovered herself. “Pfft, Adrien? Please.”

“Oh come on,” Nino persisted. “It’s always Adrien.”

“You just assume that. It doesn’t have to be Adrien.”

They sat in silence for a few seconds. Alya mentally begged Nino to let the matter drop.

He didn’t.

“But it would make so much sense if it were Adrien,” he said, turning to face her.

“Oh, please,” she huffed, rolling her eyes.

“No, I’m serious,” Nino continued, and sure enough, his voice did have a certain heavy edge to it. “That’s why she wanted to come to the zoo, isn’t it? To see Adrien? Because he did basically ask her for me… and then that’s why she wanted to wait for him because she…” He smacked his forehead with a hand and flopped back onto the straw that lined the cadge. “I am such an idiot!”

Alya looked down at him, splayed in the straw, hand still on forehead, eyes tightly closed. It was such a different picture from the flirtatious, confident, bordering-on-cocky Nino that she was used to seeing in class that it was almost like she was looking at an entirely different person. Alya felt a sudden sympathy for him and reached down to tap his shoulder.

“Don’t feel so bad. You’re a boy. Boys are stupid like that. I mean, look at Adrien! He’s so thick, he still hasn’t realized that Ma…” Alya caught herself, too late. Well, it couldn’t do any harm now, right? Nino had already guessed the truth. It wasn’t like she was telling him anything new.

“So it is Adrien.” It wasn’t a question. Alya didn’t even have to nod.

Nino sat up with a sigh. “See, I knew it. It’s always Adrien.”

“What do you mean, ‘it’s always Adrien’?”

“Whenever I hang out with him, he’s all anyone we meet sees. ‘The gorgeous-and-famous Adrien Agreste.” Nino’s voice had a sarcastic edge to it that made Alya wince. “Girls love him, teachers love him, heck, even strangers love him. And then there’s me, that other kid who’s always hanging around. What was his name again? No one knows.” Nino sighed heavily and buried his face in his knees.

Alya had never seen this side of Nino before. It was vulnerable, shaky, insecure, and very, very human. She put an arm around his shoulders, just like a sister would do for her brother. Right. Just like a sister. Nino stiffened slightly at the contact, but did not shove her away.

“I’m sure Adrien doesn’t see you that way,” Alya said softly.

“Of course he doesn’t.” Nino’s voice was muffled by the fabric of his jeans. “And I know he can’t control how people act around him. Usually I’m fine with it. It’s just at times like these…” his voice trailed off.

Alya sighed. “Well, you know what I think?” she said.

Nino didn’t move.

She coughed and started again, slightly louder. “I said, you know what I think?”

Nino looked up. Their faces were but a hands breadth apart.

“What?” he said, voice hoarse.

“I think Adrien is a huge dork.”

Nino’s eyebrows jerked into a reflexively defensive expression. “What?”

“You heard me.” Alya nodded gravely. “Adrien is a huge dork, and everyone’s just too starstruck to notice it. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a bad thing. In fact, it makes him pretty likeable, in my opinion, and obviously in Mari’s too. But that doesn’t change the fact that he’s a huge dork.”

“And how is that supposed to make me feel better?” Nino said, still looking a bit miffed.

“Because you’re a huge dork too!” Alya said, squeezing his shoulder. “So if people like Adrien the Huge Dork, they’re bound to like Nino the Huge Dork as well!”

Nino’s eyebrows went from defensive to skeptical, his mouth stretching into a disbelieving smile. “I’m not sure it works that way.”

Alya huffed. “Well, it does in my mind. So there.”

The two sat in silence for a while. Alya kept her arm around Nino. It felt comfortable there. Finally, Nino spoke.

“Thanks Alya,” he said quietly. Then he added, with a hint of his usual teasing bravado, “I mean, I’m not sure if anything you said actually made sense, but it did make me feel better.”

“Hey, no problem,” Alya said, uncurling her arm from around his shoulders to punch him lightly in the shoulder. “I’m always available to spew comforting-sounding nonsense.”

Nino laughed. The atmosphere eased. Soon, the air was filled with their aimless conversation. Alya was surprised to find Nino so easy to talk to. She had never had this long of a conversation with him. His bravado was back in full, plus all the wit and banter that came with it, but now that she knew what to look for, she could also see the vulnerability and humanness behind it. Somehow, it made all his words seem more genuine. She smiled to herself. What a nice boy.

Then she caught herself and blinked. Nino was in the middle of a story about a time when he had forgotten to plug his headphones into his iPod when he was in the library. She shook off her thoughts and turned slightly to look out over the zoo.

Something about her shift in position caught Nino’s attention. He frowned at her, eyes drawn to her ear. “Hey wait a sec. What’s that in your ear?”

Alya froze. “Oh this?” she said, fingers rising to touch the earpiece still sitting snuggly in her right ear. “Nothing. Just a Bluetooth thing for talking on my phone, haha.”

“You just walk around the zoo with that in your ear?”

Alya huffed. “It’s important to stay connected, you know.”

Then she looked at Nino and noticed for the first time that he was wearing the same thing.

She scoffed. “You’re one to give me a hard time, you have one too!”

Nino’s hand went reflexively to his hear and he smiled guiltily. “Oh. Yeah.”

They sat back on the straw-covered floor, letting the silence stretch, the story-telling atmosphere broken.

“So I’m guessing you were using that to talk to Mari, huh?” Nino said at last.

Alya nodded. “Who were you talking to yours with?” Nino started to speak, but she cut him off. “Wait, let me guess—Adrien.”

Nino nodded. Alya smiled ruefully. “Well, that would have been a weird date, huh?”

“I dunno, it was kind of fun,” Nino shrugged. “I felt like a spy or something. I mean, a stuttering, messed up sort of spy, but still.”

Alya laughed. “You should try hiding in the bushes and giving the advice. Much more spy-like. Very secretive. Very hush-hush.”

“No way. Being in the field is way more fun.”

Alya laughed again. “The field? You call a zoo bench a field?”

“Hey, when you’re trying to talk to a girl you like, it sure feels like a field.”

Alya just let out a sarcastic little breath of air.

Silence fell again, though this time it felt much less awkward.

“Ladybug and Chat Noir sure are taking their time…” Alya mused.

Nino perked up. “Hey, what do you say in the meantime we play a game?”

Alya scoffed. “Nino, what kind of game are we going to play? There is literally nothing in this cadge to play with.”

“We have our earpieces,” Nino pointed out, “and a whole lot of cover.”

“You aren’t suggesting…”

“Oh yes I am. We’re gonna play spies.”

Alya smirked. “What are you, 9?”

“Maybe,” Nino grinned. “But it sounds like fun, right?”

“It might be better than sitting here and waiting for nothing to happen,” Alya admitted. “But what are we going to do, stalk the ornamental trees?”

“Oh bro of little faith,” Nino said, “I have a plan. I’ll hide over there,” he pointed to a thick clump of bushes at the edge of the enclosure. “And you hide somewhere over here.”

“And then what?”

“And then… we improvise.”

“Great plan.” Alya rolled her eyes, but Nino was already on his feet and walking to the other side of the cadge. “This is the dumbest spy game ever!” she called after him.

A minute later, she got a call on her cell. She answered it with her Bluetooth.

“Eagle 1, come in, this is Eagle 2. Do you copy?”

“Yes, Nino, I ‘copy,’” Alya rolled her eyes again.

“No, no, you have to use the code names!”

“Nino, there is literally no one that can hear us.”

“Fine.” There was a sigh, and the line went quiet for a second.

“You dead, Nino?”

There was a short laugh. “No. Just trying to think of something to do. You’re right, there isn’t really anything to spy on in this cadge.”

“Told you.”

There was silence again, but it was shorter this time. “Listen, Alya, there is something I wanted to tell you though.”

Alya’s heartrate quickened at the tone of his voice. She tried to make it calm down again. “Why didn’t you just tell me earlier?”

“Because it’s a secret,” his voice crackled through the earpiece. “And this seemed like a pretty good way to tell you a secret.”

Alya took a deep breath, steadying herself. “Okay, Nino. Spill.”

“I liked Marinette.”

Alya let out a bark of laughter. “Dummy! I already knew that! You just told me, remember?”

“No, I didn’t.” Nino’s voice was calm. Alya felt her heart speed up again in spite of herself. “I said ‘I like Marinette.’ But it’s past tense now.”

“Still not a secret though,” Alya said. Why did her voice feel so thin? “You made it pretty clear that you’d given up on Marinette when you learned she liked Ad-… another boy in our class.”

“Right. Well, then here’s the real secret: I like someone else now.”

Alya felt herself blushing. She ordered herself to stop. It didn’t work. She had just told him… she had just said… what had she said? He was like a brother? But the sentence didn’t seem to fit anymore. No, not brother…

“Alya,” he said, voice softer now, almost a whisper. “I thought I liked Marinette, but really I like…”

His voice was drowned out in a sudden cacophony of sound. If Alya hadn’t known better, she’d have sworn she just heard a dinosaur roar.

“Sorry, I… didn’t catch that,” she said, heartrate embarrassingly fast. “What did you say?”

She heard Nino take a deep breath. “I said I like…”

But again there was the sound, and all noise from her little earpiece was lost in it. It went on longer this time, on and on, almost without pause. She pressed a finger to the Bluetooth, burying it deeper in her ear.

“Nino, I’m sorry, I just can’t…”

Then she was aware of someone standing in front of her. She looked up. It was Nino. He held out his hand and she let him pull her to her feet. The noise still raged around them, so Nino leaned close until his mouth was just inches from her ear, and said, in a clear, but heart-wrenchingly vulnerable voice, “I like you, Alya.”

Alya stiffened. Twenty minutes ago, she would have pushed him away. Twenty minutes ago, she would have shut him down so quickly she wouldn’t even have had time to consider his feelings, or even possibly her own. But now, she just stood, frozen, terrified to realize that, contrary to everything she had thought about him and about herself, she liked him too.

She didn’t say it. The noise was still too loud for that. Instead, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him close, resting her head on his chest. She felt him stiffen for a second, then relax as he hugged her in return.

Then the noise died down. A flash of red light and a wave of tiny ladybugs swept past them and suddenly they were outside of the cadge, still wrapped in each other’s arms. Alya was dimly aware that the animals were back in their places. Soon people would be returning as well.

She pulled back slightly and pressed her forehead against Nino’s, savoring the moment. Then, before she could think better of it, she kissed him lightly on the mouth and backed away.

“And I like you too,” she smiled, blushing. “But you’re also a huge dork.”

“Guilty as charged,” Nino said, his blush matching Alya’s. He rubbed the back of his neck with a hand, grinning like an idiot.

Then Alya’s smile turned evil. “Now, let’s go give Marinette hell for trying to set me up with you.”

Nino frowned. “Wha-”

Alya smiled at him, her blush deepening slightly. “We may be a thing now, but she still shouldn’t have tried to set us up without permission.”

“But it would have worked,” Nino grinned.

“That’s beside the point.” Alya brushed him off with the wave of a hand. “Besides, her dad makes the best chocolate chip cookies in Paris and I’m dying for something sweet right now. Let’s go.”

Nino took her proffered hand and together they walked out of the zoo and down the street towards Marinette’s, comfortable in each other’s silence.


End file.
